OUR TEACHERS
H.H. 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje
H.H. 17th Karmapa Trinlay Thaye Dorje
H.H. Shamar Rinpoche
Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche
Jigme Rinpoche
Lama Ole Nydahl
Hannah Nydahl
Lama Ole Nydahl
Lama Ole Nydahl and his wife Hannah were the first western students of the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. In a constant exchange with his students, Lama Ole Nydahl teaches the goal and methods of Diamond Way Buddhism. His joyful way of living provides a glimpse of what anyone can achieve through direct experience of his own mind.
The approximately 100 Buddhist Centers in the English-speaking world are open to everyone, and offer the Diamond Way through regular meditations led in English, as well as lectures and courses.
They are in the tradition of the Karma Kagyu Lineage (one of the main schools of Tibetan Buddhism) which teaches the Diamond Way, methods which provide the highest view of Buddhism. The development of clarity and independence is the goal, freely offered to "normal people" in the middle of their lives.
Almost every day he is in a different city, passing on Buddha's teachings. He has founded over 450 meditation and study centers around the world, from Vladivostok to San Francisco. Lama Ole Nydahl is probably the best known western buddhist teacher. Since he and his wife Hannah met the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa while honeymooning in Nepal in 1968, they have dedicated their lives to Buddhism. They spent three years in the Himalayas as Karmapa's personal students receiving Buddhist teachings and developing the needed experience in meditation.
Gyalwa Karmapa is the spiritual leader of the ancient Karma Kagyu lineage, one of the main schools of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1972, the 16th Karmapa directed Lama Ole Nydahl to found the first European Karma Kagyu center in Ole s hometown of Copenhagen, Denmark. Ever since then, Lama Ole has traveled around the world visiting, teaching and founding new centers. There are now over 220 centers worldwide, with thousands of friends meditating and studying in America, England, Australia and Canada, with active and energetic groups in South America, Russia, and all over Europe.
Other than passing on vivid and authentic Buddhist teachings (always with a touch of dry Danish humor) in his frequent lectures, Lama Ole also gives longer meditation courses to teach the timeless practical methods of Diamond Way Buddhism, such as the foundational practices or Phowa, a meditation which is very useful at the moment of death. Since the death of the 16th Karmapa in 1981, Lama Ole Nydahl has kept the Diamond Way Centers of the Karma Kagyu Lineage around the world together. He continues to work with the centers under the spiritual guidance of the 17th Karmapa, Thaye Dorje.
